Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
Long jumper Shaili Singh, backstroke swimmer Riddhima V Kumar selected for TOPS support
The 17-year-old Shaili Singh, World U20 Athletics Championships Long Jump silver medallist earlier this year, has been selected among the Core Group of athletes for support under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports’ Target Olympic Podium Scheme at a meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell on Thursday.
By picking 50 athletes in the Core Group and 143 in the Development Group across eight disciplines in the second list, the MOC has increased the count to 291, including 102 in the Core Group. Athletes from as many as 13 Olympic disciplines and six Paralympic disciplines have been identified so far for support in their preparation for the 2024 Games.
Among the youngest of those identified for support is swimmer Riddhima Veerendra Kumar. The 14-year-old won a clutch of medals in the National Junior Championships in October and also made waves in the National Championships a week later. She was named among the 17 swimmers in the Development Group in addition to the two identified earlier for Core Group.
The MOC accepted a recommendation by a sub-committee that a review of the swimming list be undertaken after the World Championships in June next year and of the archery list after the National Ranking tournament next month. Some other sport like Equestrian, Golf, Gymnastics, Judo and Tennis will be taken up later.
The list of athletes selected for TOPS Core and Development Groups:
Archery–Core Group: Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari. Development Group: Pravin Jadhav, Bommaravera Dhiraj, Parth Sushant Salunkhe, Aditya Choudhary, Yasdhdeep Bhoge, Divyansh Kumar Panwar, Kapish Singh, Vickey Ruhal, Neeraj Chauhan, Amit Kumar, Sudanshu Bisht, Bishal Changmai, Komalika Bari, Ankita Jadhav, Madhu Vedwan, Simranjeet Kaur, Ridhi, Deepti Kumari, Tamna, Soniya Thakur, Avni, Manjari Alone and Tisha Punia.
Athletics - Core Group: Mohammed Anas Yahiya, Dharun Ayyasamy, Naganathan Pandi, Arokia Rajiv, Amoj Jacob, Noah Nirmal Tom, Avinash Sable, Murali Sreeshankar, Neeraj Chopra, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Sandeep Kumar, Dutee Chand, Hima Das, Revathi Veeramani, VK Vismaya, Jisna Mathew, Subha Venkatesan, S Dhanalakshmi, Priyanka Goswami, Bhawna Jat, Shaili Singh, Kamalpreet Kaur, Seema Punia and Annu Rani. Development Group: Vikrant Panchal, Ayush Dabas, Kapil, Ajay Kumar Saroj, Tejaswin Shankar, Praveen Chitravel, Rohit Yadav, Sahil Silwal, Jeswin Aldrin, Muhammed Ajmal, Karanveer Singh, Yashveer Singh, Amit Khatri, AT Daneswari, Anjali Devi, Priya Mohan, Jyotika Dandi, Kaveri, R Vithya, NS Simi, PD Anjali, Sandra Babu, Ancy Sojan and Sherin Abdul Gafoor.
Badminton - Core Group: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponappa. Development Group: Sankar Muthusamy, Pranav Rao Gandham, Maisnam Meiraba, K Sathish Kumar, Rohan Gurbani, Sai Charan Koya, Kiran Geroge, Priyanshu Rajwat, Ishaan Bhatnagar, P Vishnuvardhan Goud, Krishna Prasad G, Dhruv Kapil, MR Arjun, Sai Prateek Krishna Prasad, Tasnim Mir, Pullela Gayatri Gopichand, Samiya Imar Farooqui, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Ashmita Chaliha, Aditi Bhatt, Tanisha Crasto, Treesa Jolly, Ashwini Bhat, Rutuparna Panda and Shikha Gautam
Boxing - Core Group: Amit Pangal, Deepak Kumar, Manish Kaushik, Sanjeet, Satish Kumar, MC Mary Kom, Lovlina Borgohain and Pooja Rani. Development Group: Kavinder Bisht, Ashish Kumar, Bihswametra Chongtham, Aakash Kumar, Sachin Siwach, Mohammed Husamuddin, Rohit More, Sachin, Ankit Narwal, Mohammed Etash Khan, Varinder, Shiva Thapa, Akash Sangwan, Naveen Boora, Nishant Dev, Hemant Yadav, Sumit, Sachin Kumar, Laksya Chahar, Naman Tanwar, Naveen Kumar, Vishal Gupta, Aman Singh, Narender, Nitu, Rani Manju, Nikhat Zareen, Anamika, Babyrojisana Naroem Chanu, Jamuna Boro, Poonam Poonia, Sakshi, Jasmine, Simranjit Kaur, Parveen Hooda, Ankushita Boro, Vinka, Arundathi Chaudhary and Sanamacha Chanu
Fencing - Core Group: Bhavani Devi. Development Group: Karan Singh, Abhay Shinde, C Jetlee, RS Sherjin, SN Siva Magesh, Bennet Joseph, Laishram Moramba, Oinam Jubraj, Tanishka Khatri, Sheetal Dalal, Vedika Khushi and Shreya Gupta.
Rowing - Core Group: Arjun Lal Jat, Arvind Singh, Sukhmeet Singh, Bittu Singh, Jakhar Khan and Ravi. Development Group: Parminder Singh
Swimming – Development Group: Advait Page, Kushagra Rawat, Aryan Nehra, Neel Roy, Shoan Ganguly, Tanish George Mathew, Aneesh S Gowda, Swadesh Mondal, Aryan Panchal, R Sambhavv, Maana Patel, Kenisha Gupta, Aanya Wala, Apeksha Fernandes, Bhavya Sachdeva, Suvana C Baskar and Ridhima Veerendra Kumar
Table Tennis - Development Group: Yashaswini Ghorpade and Prapti Sen.